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    26 Jan 2004 - Suit Alleges Sex Abuse in Cadet Program

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    CadetAbuseAwareness
    The HMCS Discovery sex abuse story was hidden and minimized by the cadet program and Department of National Defence. Little public attention was paid to the story at the time, and it was dismissed as a historical issue.

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    26 Jan 2004 - Suit Alleges Sex Abuse in Cadet Program

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    CadetAbuseAwareness
    109 views3 pages
    The HMCS Discovery sex abuse story was hidden and minimized by the cadet program and Department of National Defence. Little public attention was paid to the story at the time, and it was dismissed as a historical issue.

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    The HMCS Discovery sex abuse story was hidden and minimized by the cadet program and Department of National Defence. Little public attention was paid to the story at the time, and it was dismissed as a historical issue.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    109 views3 pages

    26 Jan 2004 - Suit Alleges Sex Abuse in Cadet Program

    Uploaded by

    CadetAbuseAwareness
    The HMCS Discovery sex abuse story was hidden and minimized by the cadet program and Department of National Defence. Little public attention was paid to the story at the time, and it was dismissed as a historical issue.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 3

    Suit alleges

    sex abuse in
    cadet program
    PETER KENNEDY
    VANCOUVER From Monday's Globe and Mail
    Published Monday, Jan. 26, 2004 12:00AM EST
    Last updated Wednesday, Mar. 18, 2009 11:03AM EDT

    The Attorney-General of Canada has been named as a defendant in a suit


    that is seeking compensation for teenage boys alleged to have been victims
    of a series of sex abuse crimes in the HMCS Discovery sea cadet program.
    The suit, which has been compared in size and scope to the infamous Mount
    Cashel case in Newfoundland, is set to proceed after being certified as a
    class action by the British Columbia Supreme Court.
    It alleges that as many as 63 teenage boys may have been sexually abused
    by reserve officers who preyed on cadets from the Vancouver based HMCS
    Discovery between 1967 and 1977.
    "This was a very unfortunate situation,'' said Robert Gibbens, the lawyer
    acting for William White, a Vancouver resident who is named as a victim in
    the class-action suit.
    Mr. Gibbens alleges that the lives of many former cadets who are now in
    their late 40s were ruined after they were abused in an atmosphere that one
    judge described as a "subculture of perversity."
    Five former officers of HMCS Discovery, which is stationed in Vancouver's
    Stanley Park, are named as third parties in the case.
    Two of them, Ralph Bremner and Conrad Sundman, have been found guilty
    of sexual abuse and other sex crimes.
    Mr. Sundman was sentenced to seven years in prison three years ago after
    earlier pleading guilty to 13 counts of indecent assault and three counts of
    buggery. Mr. Bremner was convicted of four counts of indecent assault on
    boys aged between 13 and 15 years old.
    In a complaint filed in the B.C. Supreme Court, Mr. White is alleging that the
    federal government may be liable for what is said to have occurred on HMCS
    Discovery, because the Sea Cadets program was set up under the National
    Defence Act.
    Mr. White alleges that the Attorney-General failed to take reasonable
    measures in the operation or management of the program to protect the
    cadets from conduct of a sexual nature by employees, agents and other
    cadets at HMCS Discovery.
    During Mr. Sundman's and Mr. Bremner's criminal trials, evidence emerged
    of officers plying their young charges with alcohol and pornography.

    One of the victims told court how, as 400 cadets were gathered in a room
    watching footage of one of the U.S. landings on the moon, Mr. Sundman
    slipped his hand in the cadet's pocket and began fondling him.
    If the plaintiffs are successful, the federal government would be compelled
    to pay huge damages to some of the victims.
    Follow us on Twitter: @globeandmail

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